Galactic Empire
: "We are an Empire ruled by the majority! An Empire ruled by a new Constitution! An Empire of laws, not of politicians! An Empire devoted to the preservation of a just society. Of a safe and secure society! We are an Empire that will stand for ten thousand years!" : ―Palpatine The Galactic Empire, also known as the First Galactic Empire, Palpatine's New Order, or simply the Empire, was a galactic government established by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine to replace the Galactic Republic in 19 BBY and bring Sith rule to the galaxy. The Republic, which had lasted for at least 25,034 years prior, ended following a period of intense political turmoil and the subsequent devastation of the Clone Wars. After the death of Count Dooku above Coruscant, the death of General Grievous on Utapau and finally the culling of the leaders of the Confederacy of Independent Systems on Mustafar at the hands of Darth Vader, Chancellor Palpatine began a purge of the Jedi Order, and proclaimed himself Emperor of the galaxy, reorganizing the Galactic Republic into "the first Galactic Empire" on the galactic capital, Coruscant. History Origin : "I have good news for you, my Lord. The war has begun." "Excellent. Everything is going as planned." : ―Dooku and Darth Sidious — The idea of the Empire began with an aspiring Naboo Senator, Sheev Palpatine, secretly Darth Sidious, who inspired by the Sith Empires of old, that dominated the galaxy millennia earlier. Palpatine would later instigate the Naboo crisis, using the Trade Federation as a pawn, leading to Queen Amidala calling for a "Vote of No Confidence" in the then Supreme Chancellor, allowing Palpatine to replace him. When his first apprentice, Darth Maul, was defeated by Obi-Wan Kenobi on Naboo, Sidious took on the former Jedi Count Dooku as his new apprentice. Dooku helped to found the Confederacy of Independent Systems, which would ignite the Separatist Crisis and the Clone Wars. Palpatine's power was greatly increased as a result of the Clone Wars, with the Senate willingly furnishing more and more emergency powers to him. Eventually, the Senate lost most of its power and became little more than a formality that Palpatine had to go through to pass his laws. Anakin Skywalker would later discover that Palpatine was a Sith Lord, and after having informed Jedi Master Mace Windu of this, a Jedi task force, led by Windu himself, attempted to arrest him. After a brief duel in his office, Palpatine appeared to be defeated. Skywalker arrived and demanded that the Sith Lord stand trial, and his life spared. After Windu refused, a deeply troubled Skywalker helped Palpatine kill Windu, prompting him to be held under Palpatine's sway as his new apprentice and enforcer, Darth Vader. Afterward, Palpatine proceeded to initiate out the Second Great Jedi Purge, including the massacre of the Jedi Temple itself, which eliminated almost all of the Jedi, all the while simultaneously sending Vader to wipe out the remnants of the Confederacy at Mustafar, thus bringing an end to the Clone Wars. Finally, secure in his position of power, Palpatine then used the so-called Jedi rebellion to issue the Declaration of a New Order and declared himself the Emperor of the galaxy in 19 BBY, replacing the reorganizing the Galactic Republic into the Galactic Empire, which was received with thunderous applause. Palpatine vowed that the newly-formed Galactic Empire would reign with ten thousand years of peace. Imperialization : "Do you remember the peace and prosperity of the Old Republic? Of course, you don't! It was chaos, endless civil war, and a nightmarish bureaucracy. Who brought us peace? Who brought us prosperity? It was the Empire! Who reformed the Senate and decentralized power? It was the Emperor!" '' : ''- Unidentified Imperial Sympathiser Many people under the new Empire enthusiastically supported the vision outlined in the Declaration of a New Order, mainly due to the violence that had plagued the galaxy for so long with the Clone Wars. Many Senators eagerly supported the new government while a number of more cautious senators chose to watch and wait to see how the new government would handle the affairs of state. It promised to trade frailty for strength, chaos for order, and uncertainty for decisiveness. In reality, the foundation of the Empire had already been set down during Palpatine's chancellorship and all potential threats eliminated, resulting in a smooth transition from Republic to Empire. Despite this, not all of the Senators were in favor of the new Empire. In fact, the Petition of 2000, led by Bail Organa, Mon Mothma, and Padmé Amidala, sought to bring the worries of these Senators to Palpatine himself. Palpatine's dismissal of their concerns was one factor that led Organa and Mothma to help found the Alliance to Restore the Republic in the future With the rise of the Empire, all the institutions of the old Republic found themselves either dismantled or modified beyond recognition. There was a rush of renaming all things "Imperial" to glorify the new Emperor and his Empire: seemingly overnight, the Coruscant sector was renamed to Imperial Sector, Coruscant was renamed Imperial Center, and Galactic City renamed Imperial City. The Galactic Senate became the Imperial Senate, the Grand Army of the Republic became the Imperial Army with the clone troopers, who had made up the majority of the Grand Army, reorganized into the Stormtrooper Corps, and the Republic Navy became the Imperial Navy. The four ancient intelligence agencies of the Republic were merged into Imperial Intelligence, with former Senate Bureau of Intelligence (SBI) director Armand Isard as its head. The Palace of the Republic, promptly renamed the Imperial Palace, was expanded upon, eclipsing all other buildings on Imperial Center. The former Commission for the Protection of the Republic (COMPOR) was renamed the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order (COMPNOR). Within days, there were little names left to remind anybody that the Galactic Republic ever existed at all. In order to protect his power, Palpatine launched purges against his opponents, notably Old Republic officers, whom he had not been able to seduce to his side. Palpatine's first purge of the Imperial Navy occurred within just two weeks into the Empire's rule. Any officers who held anti-Imperial sentiments were arrested and promptly executed by Admiral Mulleen, under Palpatine's orders. In addition, many former Separatist worlds had their assets confiscated by the newly formed Empire. During the first few years of the Empire, the galaxy saw the single largest military buildup in history. A permanent class of Moffs and regional governors was established around the galaxy to more efficiently govern individual sectors and regions of the Empire. The Empire also pursued a reconquest of the Middle and Outer Rims of the Galaxy, which included getting rid of any and all remaining Separatist influence. For many this was a period of celebration: the Separatists had at last been defeated and order and the rule of law had been returned to systems and sectors that had long been overrun by pirates and criminals. Citizens who had become disillusioned with their senators found a new voice through organizations like COMPNOR, and the Outer Rim was reconciled to Imperial rule through conciliatory gestures like the pardoning and early release of certain Separatist prisoners. However, many members of the Imperial Military were unhappy about Palpatine's plans for imperialization: With at least one major coup taking place, though failing, to assassinate Palpatine. Over the course of the next 20 years, the Empire would subjugate multiple worlds, if not destroy those that opposed their rule. One world of which the Emperor saw as a threat to his New Order were the Caamasi. After a group of Bothan infiltrators for sabotaged Caamas's shield generators, the planet was vulnerable to Imperial orbital bombardment that ensued. Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader, would also be relentlessly hunting down any Jedi Purge survivors, on Palpatine's orders. A notable example of this was on Kessel when a group of Jedi including Master Tsui Choi and Jedi Knight Bultar Swan planned to draw Darth Vader into a trap to kill him. However, due to terribly bad planning and execution, every one of them was killed, with Vader only coming out slightly damaged. Rebellion : "Even though I've only been in active service for a few weeks, it has already become evident to me that the Rebel Alliance is a far larger and more dangerous group than official broadcasts have ever acknowledged. We do not operate as a peacetime military. Our preparations are more appropriate for a time of war." : ―Jude Edivon On the planet Ghorman, a group of beings were protesting the tyranny of the Galactic Empire. This protest blocked Wilhuff Tarkin's flagship from landing, as there were peaceful protesters who stood on the ship's landing pad and refused to move. With implied permission from Palpatine, Tarkin landed the ship anyway, right on top of the protesters, injuring and killing many. This came to be known as the Ghorman Massacre. In 2 BBY, after the true nature of the Empire became clear, three of the most influential senators, Bail Organa of Alderaan, Garm Bel Iblis of Corellia, and Mon Mothma of Chandrila, along with others, were on the brink of starting a great rebellion against the Empire. However, the senators would be arrested and nearly executed before escaping to Kashyyyk, where the new organization was finalized. Just weeks later, a full-scale war broke out between the Imperials and the Rebels, an armed military conflict that would consume the galaxy for many years to come. However, the threat of rebellion allowed Palpatine to endorse the Tarkin Doctrine of rule by fear of force rather than force itself. If anything, Palpatine welcomed the formation of the fledgling Rebel Alliance as a legitimate excuse to remove the last vestiges of the Republic and tighten his grip on the galaxy. To test the Death Star's power, Tarkin ordered the Destruction of Despayre, the planet which the space station was built over which took three waves and likely consumed its only moon Haroon in the process. The moon of Jedha was also tested on. Following the destruction of Jedha, a group of rebels captured the blueprints for the Death Star in 0 BBY, which had just been completed after nearly two decades of work. The plans eventually made their way to Imperial Senator and Princess Leia Organa on the Tantive IV, which was promptly intercepted by Darth Vader and captured, though the plans were nowhere to be found. The Imperial Senate was later dissolved after the Darth Star plans were stolen, taking what was left of the Old Republic with it. Almost immediately afterward, Tarkin ordered the Destruction of Alderaan, which took a signal fire and was completely obliterated, despite their captive Organa's protest, who was eventually rescued by the crew of the Millennium Falcon. A key instrument in the enforcement of the doctrine was intended to be the Death Star, a moon-sized space station with sufficient firepower to easily destroy a planet with a single discharge of its powerful superlaser. Whereas many planets could afford planetary deflector shields capable of warding off virtually any conventional attack, none could defend against the power of that weapon. The weapon was destroyed in the Battle of Yavin, which marked the first major space-based victory for the Rebel Alliance. At this point Palpatine and the rest of the Empire realized that the Rebellion was a major threat to them and one that should be taken seriously, for the destruction of the Death Star was a massive blow to the Empire. After the superweapon's destruction, the Rebels had finally found their footing. They began to consistently strike Imperial-held territories, inciting continuing resentment against the Empire and taking them under the Rebels' banner. This included the Anti-Imperial propaganda for destroying Alderaan, which set thousands of worlds in the galaxy to protest against the empire's brutality, even in the Core Worlds. Although the Empire gained the upper hand in most campaigns against the Alliance, such as the Battle of Hoth and the construction of the second Death Star, they could not prevent the unstoppable juggernaut that the Rebels unleashed upon them and felt their grip in the galaxy slowly weaken. Thus, in the climax of the Galactic Civil War that was the Battle of Endor, where Anakin Skywalker would also aid the Rebels in fulfilling an ancient Jedi prophecy by assisting in the death of Emperor Palpatine, the Empire was finally unseated from its control over the galaxy. Rise of the New Republic The New Republic's rise to power reduced the once-mighty Galactic Empire to a number of splinter factions in the Core Worlds and the edge of the Outer Rim, and a rump state hemmed in by strict disarmament treaties and punishing reparations. But in the Galaxy's Unknown Regions, former Imperials plotted a return to power by constructing fleets and armies in secret, becoming the First Order. Imperial Remnants First Order Humaneocentrism Organisation Governing Bodies Imperial Council of Intergalactic Affairs Commission for the Preservation of the New Order Imperial Army Imperial Navy Imperial Intelligence Bureau Imperial Service Bureau Imperial Office of Criminal Investigations Imperial Bureau of Travel Imperial Occupational Health and Safety Bureau Imperial Institute of Military Medicine Imperial Council of ExtraGalactic Affairs Commission for the Preservation of the New Order Coalition for Progress Imperial Department of Military Research Imperial Brokerage and Syndication Bureau The IBSB was designed to handle situations wherein sides in a conflict or event were not suppose to be seen with Imperial backing. They operated unofficially and the organisation was known to be a myth despite actually existing and carrying out numerous operations. Imperial Credit Union Handrail Policy Many Imperial military vehicles and installations, especially ones made in secret, lacked safety features such as handrails in a number of areas. This was due to a "thinning the herd" mindset. Personnel were trained to operate in conditions where handrails were not present, therefore they were expected to maintain alertness at all times to avoid tripping or being pushed over the edge. Manual The Imperial Combat Manual's article 26 regarded the proper handling, treatment, and disposal of enemy combatants. Quote to use I encounter civilians like you all the time. You believe the Empire is continually plotting to do harm. Let me tell you, your view of the Empire is far too dramatic. The Empire is a government. It keeps billions of beings fed and clothed. Day after day, year after year, on thousands of worlds, people live their lives under Imperial rule without seeing a stormtrooper or hearing a TIE fighter scream overhead." ―Captain Thrawn, to Tash ArrandaCategory:Empire Category:Galactic Empire Category:Rise of the Empire Era Category:Rebellion Era